The Civil and Ceremonial Laws (3)

We continue to answer a question about the Old Testament civil and ceremonial laws: “Is it true that the Lord Jesus teaches in Matthew 5:17-19 that all the laws of Moses, including the ceremonial and civil laws, are binding and must be ‘fulfilled’ by believers in the New Testament age?” Having spoken of the ceremonial laws in the last article, we focus on the civil laws in this article. Our answer has been long, because this is a matter to which we have given much thought and with which we have wrestled ourselves.

The Belgic Confession 25, “Of the Abolishing of the Ceremonial Law,” says this about those laws: “We believe that the ceremonies and figures of the law ceased at the coming of Christ, and that all the shadows are accomplished; so that the use of them must be abolished amongst Christians; yet the truth and substance of them remain with us in Jesus Christ, in whom they have their completion. In the meantime we still use the testimonies taken out of the law and the prophets, to confirm us in the doctrine of the gospel, and to regulate our life in all honesty to the glory of God, according to His will.”

The statement of the Belgic Confession that “the truth and substance” of the civil and ceremonial laws “remain with us in Jesus Christ” is the subject of this article. The Belgic Confession itself explains this to mean that “we still use the testimonies taken out of the law and the prophets, to confirm us in the doctrine of the gospel, and to regulate our life in all honesty to the glory of God, according to His will.”

That the truth and substance of the civil and ceremonial laws remain with us in Jesus Christ must mean that those laws had to do with Him, “his graces, actions, sufferings, and benefits” (Westminster Confession 19:3). It must also mean that there is a sense in which those laws are important for us, though we do not mean that Christians are bound by the explicit demands of those laws.

This is true of the ceremonial laws, for all the laws regarding priesthood, sacrifices and temple, etc., remain with us in Him, in that He is “the truth and substance of them.” He is priest, sacrifice and temple, the completion of all those Old Testament laws. We in Him are part of that priesthood, temple and sacrificial system: a spiritual temple (I Cor. 3:16), an holy priesthood (I Pet. 2:5), offering ourselves a living sacrifice (Rom. 12:1). As we have seen, those shadows must never again be resurrected as a substitute for Him. We must not be like the Jews who clung to the shadows and rejected the reality. Most Christians understand that. Reading these things in the Old Testament confirms us in the doctrine of the gospel, and shows us that the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin (Heb. 10:4), that we need a better priest than Aaron who was himself a sinner and had first to offer for his own sins (cf. 5:1-4). They teach us that the true temple of God is a temple not built with hands, eternal in the heavens (cf. 8:2; 9:24). The book of Hebrews is Scripture’s great treatise on this subject.

What is true of the ceremonial laws is also true of the civil laws. They are not to be set aside as worthless, though they have expired. There is still truth in them for the New Testament Christian. A couple of examples from Scripture will serve.

The law of Deuteronomy 22:10, “Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together,” is applied to New Testament believers in II Corinthians 6:14, 16: “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? ... what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them.” In this way, “the truth and substance” of the commandment remain with us in Christ, and “we still use the testimonies taken out of the law and the prophets, to confirm us in the doctrine of the gospel, and to regulate our life in all honesty to the glory of God, according to His will.” Indeed, that was always “the truth and substance” of Deuteronomy 22:10. There is nothing inherently wrong with ploughing with an ox and an ass, though it might be unwise as far as getting any work done. The law was always meant to teach Israel not to join themselves to the heathen (Deut. 33:28).

It was an application of the first table of the law: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind” (Matt. 22:37), that is, we must have, hold and love no one or anything beside Him. An Israelite who knew this command could never go out to plough his field, even if an ox and an ass were the only animals he had, and they were of similar height, without being reminded of the first table of the law and its demands (Deut. 6:5; 10:12; 30:6). It is in this way that Deuteronomy 22:10 is still to be read with profit by Christians and in this way we “regulate our life in all honesty to the glory of God, according to His will.”

Another example is the law of Deuteronomy 25:4, “Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn.” Though perhaps unkind, there is nothing inherently wrong with muzzling the ox, especially if one treats his ox well and feeds him properly on other occasions. “The truth and substance” of that law, however, remains and that is what I Corinthians 9:7-10 teaches: “Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope.”

Though Paul refused any wages from the church in Corinth (II Cor. 11:7-9; 12:13-18), Scripture insists that “the workman is worthy of his meat” (Matt. 10:10). That is true of those who serve in the church but also of the hired man. Thus Colossians 4:1 is also an application of Deuteronomy 25:4: “Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal; knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven.” Those who broke the law of muzzling an ox in the Old Testament also, therefore, broke the tenth commandment, “Thou shalt not covet,” for Deuteronomy 25:4 is an application of that commandment and also of the eighth, “Thou shalt not steal.”

Thus the law about muzzling the ox has expired and cannot even be kept in those countries where threshing is done by combines. You cannot muzzle a combine harvester and it cannot be “partaker of ... hope.” God said that Israelites must not muzzle their oxen when threshing their wheat. However, He said it not out of care for the oxen but for our sakes, that is, to teach Israel the principles of the ten commandments, and to remind us also of the importance of justice, mercy and equity even in our daily dealings. Thus, though we do not thresh with oxen and though we do not need to follow the explicit requirement of Deuteronomy 25:4, “we still use the testimonies taken out of the law and the prophets, to confirm us in the doctrine of the gospel, and to regulate our life in all honesty to the glory of God, according to His will.”

This is important in our use of the Old Testament. It is not to be set aside, though we might find the rules and regulations somewhat tedious. They are there “for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come” (I Cor. 10:11).

There is one other thing about the civil laws. There are so many rules and regulations that it must have been impossible, unless one were an Old Testament priest or rabbi, even to remember them all, much less obey them all. God had His saving purpose even in that. The sheer number of commandments and their requirements must have taught believing Israel that salvation could not come by the works of the law—that it was impossible for anyone to obey the law of God perfectly. In that way, the law was a “schoolmaster” to bring them to Christ (Gal. 3:24). It still functions that way and that is the first use of the law as well (cf. Heidelberg Catechism, Q. & A. 3).

Question 115 of the Heidelberg Catechism asks, “Why will God then have the ten commandments so strictly preached, since no man in this life can keep them?” The answer is, “First, that all our lifetime we may learn more and more to know our sinful nature, and thus become the more earnest in seeking the remission of sin and righteousness in Christ; likewise, that we constantly endeavor, and pray to God for the grace of the Holy Spirit, that we may become more and more conformable to the image of God, till we arrive at the perfection proposed to us in a life to come.” The moral law continues in force, though the applications of it to Israel’s life have expired. We do not remove the civil and ceremonial laws from our Bibles, however, but continue to read and study them.

May the Old Testament civil and ceremonial laws continue to “confirm us in the doctrine of the gospel, and to regulate our life in all honesty to the glory of God, according to His will.” Rev. Ron Hanko